Kootenai Post (2)

Kootenai Post (2) (1811-Unk) - A North West Company (NWC) trading post established in 1811 along the Kootenai River at the "Big Bend" across from present day Jennings in Lincoln County, Montana. Also known as Fort Kootenae and with various spellings of the river name (Kooyenay, Kootenai, Kootenae). In general, the United States spelling is Kootenai and the Canadian spelling is Kootenay. Farmland in the Big Bend of the Kootenay (Kootenai) River near the Identified Site of Kootenai Post 2. History Established by the North West Company (NWC) in the winter of 1811-1812 along the Kootenai River across from present day Jennings in Lincoln County, Montana. Kootenai River Trading Posts Post Site Location Company Est To Established By Notes Kootenai House Lake Windemere (near) NWC 1807 Unk David Thompson Kootenai Post (1) Libby (opposite) NWC 1808 1811 Finan McDonald Moved to #2 Kootenai Post (2) Jennings (opposite) NWC 1811 Unk Kootenai Post (3) Rainey Creek (mouth) NWC HBC 1821 1829 1824 Unk William Kittson Kootenai Post (4) Young Creek (below) HBC 1846 1860 Edward Berland Current Status The site is reportedly on private property in the Big Bend of the Kootenay River and is not marked with roadside markers or obvious access points. The site was identified by Jacob Meyers in October 1915 although he was unable to tie it to a specific post. Meyers found four chimney bottoms and three cellar depressions and placed a stone marker at the site. This stone marker was displaced by later road construction and now resides in the Libby Heritage Museum in Libby, Montana. According to the Heritage Museum, the site (but not the marker) was "relocated" at the Big Bend in 2007. The marker and the tale associated with it are shown here. {"selectable":false,"width":"500"} Location: At the "Big Bend" of the Kootenay River across from the town of Jennings in Lincoln County, Montana. Map point is from the GNIS coordinates and may not be accurate. Maps & Images Lat: 48.36662 Long: -115.33433 Multi Maps from ACME Maps from Bing Maps from Google Elevation: 2,129' See Also: North West Company North West Company Forts Sources: Roberts, Robert B., Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States, Macmillan, New York, 1988, 10th printing, ISBN 0-02-926880-X, page 472. USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Database Entry: 1782426 Links: North American Forts - Kootenai Post (2) Libby Heritage Museum Visited: Area 7 Jun 2017